Over the past weekend, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn’s producer, and the man most responsible for breathing new life into a MMO that was once on the brink of collapse, hosted a ‘Live Letter From the Producer’ event, where he sat down and talked about the upcoming patch to the massively multiplayer onliine game, which has been steadily gaining traction over the course of the last few years and has established itself as one of the prime contenders in the genre. Patch 3.2 isn’t just a series of fixes but also introduces a host of new content for players to experience and enjoy. Here are some of the most intriguing reveals:
Stone, Sky, Sea
In this challenge, players will be able to test their skills and see how much DPS they can generate within a set amount of time by beating on training dummies modeled after the endgame content’s bosses. Those who accept the challenge will have three minutes to succeed, and while there are no rewards, Yoshida (or Yoshi-P as he’s known to FF XIV veterans) believes that players will want to try it out just to get that feather in their cap and hone their techniques.
Gnath Beast Tribe Daily Quests
The Gnath, which players will recall are the race that worships the primal Ravana, will have a series of quests that adventurers can perform to increase their bond with that group and gain access to in game rewards. Once max rank has been achieved, players will be able to purchase the legendary Admantoise as a mount, and it can even take to the skies in the flight enabled zones.
New Dungeons
The dungeons ‘The Antitower’ and ‘The Lost City of Amdapor (Hard)’ will be added to the game’s many instances.
Alexander: Midas (Savage)
A more difficult version of the ‘Alexander: Midas’ fight, with greater rewards, will be added. Also, there will be some balancing adjustments made to the third and fourth areas of ‘Alexander: Gordias (Savage)’, as Yoshi-P and his team believe that they may have proven a bit too difficult a challenge, but they assured the elite player base that it would still be a grueling series of trials.
Orchestration
Those who own houses in Final Fantasy XIV will be able to obtain a device that allows them to change the background music, which will also grow more faint and less audible based on your distance to this virtual jukebox. There will be various methods for obtaining the sheet music required to expand the discography.
The Feast
A new PvP system that has both ranked and non ranked competitions as well as matchmaking options, The Feast pits players against each other in groups with specific roles required to enter the battle. The way to win is to defeat opponents and take their medals from them, and the first team to get all the medals wins the fight. There will also be item boxes that grant a variety of bonus status effects, or ‘buffs’ to use RPG vernacular, as well as options for solo competition.
Changes to Tank DPS
This is probably the one that’s going to ruffle the most feathers, since it’s a fundamental alteration to the way in which tanks play the game currently. As of late, tanks (a general term used to describe the player that keeps an enemy monster’s attention focused on them so the rest of the party can act without fear of becoming its target) have found a way to go with ‘Strength’ builds (equipping gear that raises the Strength statistic) to improve performance because a higher Strength means a higher rate of DPS (Damage Per Second). A tank’s primary stat is supposed to be Vitality (which increases the maximum HP of the tank and also provides greater damage resistance), however, and Yoshi-P and crew want to return the focus to a tank’s ability to absorb punishment, while leaving in the power to dish it back out. Therefore, Vitality will now be the key stat for tank jobs in improving both BOTH offense and defense.
What this means, for those that don’t understand the significance of the change, is that there will now be less risk for tanks to DPS over simply being meat shields because they will be capable of dealing as much damage as they could with Strength, or STR, builds while still having all of the HP and resistances that a higher Vitality, or VIT, provides. Prior to patch 3.2, players had to choose which build they wanted to brave the dangers with beforehand. The elite crowd will likely see this as too friendly to ‘casuals’ (a derogatory term in MMO circles meant to refer to players that don’t have as much skill or time to obtain the best gear and weapons, or are simply playing to enjoy themselves rather than to excel at their roles), but Yoshida believes that the change will be better for the game’s overall health in the long run.
Mentor System
Players that have fulfilled a certain number of prerequisites will be able to designate themselves as in game ‘Mentors’ that newer and less skilled players can go to for assistance and guidance in overcoming the challenges the land of Eorzea presents them. Mentors will receive priority ques for instances and will be able to receive minor rewards and achievements for successfully performing in the Mentor role.
Tomestone Adjustments
They will be adding a new currency, called ‘Tomestones of Lore’, which will presumably be used to purchase even higher level gear and weapons. Tomestones of Soldiery will be removed, activities will no longer distribute tomestones of Law and an exchange for Law to Tomestones of Esoterics will be implemented. The weekly cap on Esoterics is being removed and lastly, they will be keeping Tomestones of Poetics for a while longer yet.
There will also be numerous job and system adjustments to help better balance the game, along with changes to the Materia Melding system, Exploratory Missions, crafting and various other aspects of the gameplay such as the functionality of Duty Roulettes.
Final Fantasy XIV Patch 3.2 The Gears of Change will be available on February 23, 2016 worldwide. The game is currently available on Playstation 4, Playstation 3 and Windows PC.
